


Daughter of Anarchy

by FaithWinchester



Series: Anarchy [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Sons of Anarchy, Supernatural
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:34:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 20,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21664537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaithWinchester/pseuds/FaithWinchester
Summary: Dean and Faith have been doing okay so far, but what will happen when Faith suddenly finds out she has a family, including a scary dad, pushy stepmom and older stepbrother?
Relationships: Faith Lehane/Dean Winchester
Series: Anarchy [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1561843
Comments: 20
Kudos: 52





	1. California Dreamin

**Author's Note:**

> Previously posted in Twisting the Hellmouth.
> 
> I don't own any recognizable characters and I played a little fast and loose with the cannon.
> 
> I always hated where the cannon for Sons of Anarchy took Clay and Gemma and company, so I'm definitely veering away from the SOA cannon history with this fic. I never did find a beta, so if anyone is familiar with all three fandoms and is interested in being a beta, there are several other fics in this series that could probably benefit from some revisions.

Her father.

Faith hadn’t thought about him in a long time. Her mother had told her he was a biker she met at a bar one night. They’d spent a wild week together before he rode off into the sunset on a big black Harley. She didn’t find out she was pregnant until two weeks later and she didn’t know how to get a hold of him. All she had was a name, Clay and someone called Sam Crow.

Sure, she’d thought about trying to find him when she was a kid, thought about him showing up and taking her away from her junkie mother and her string of endless loser boyfriends. As she’d gotten older, though, the daydream faded into nothingness, until she just didn’t think about him anymore.

“Faith?” came Giles’ voice over the phone and she jerked to attention.

“Huh? Oh, right, sorry, Giles, got a little lost there,” she said.

“Understandably so. I imagine this possibility never occurred to you. I really am sorry it happened this way, Faith, truly,” Giles said again.

“Yeah, I got it, don’t worry about it. We’re five by five. So, where did you say he is?” she asked.

“A small town called Charming, in California. Faith, really, if I had any idea-“

“Giles, enough! I said we’re cool. Just email that address to Sam’s account and I’ll have him pull it up in the morning. Thanks for calling, Giles,” she said, hanging up before he could say anything more. Her head was spinning with all the new information.

Apparently, the old Watcher’s Council had been doing a study on the lineage of Slayers and the new Council had a few overachievers that had picked up the project. They’d used the information they had, her sketchy memories of what her mother had told her and tracked down her father, then sent him a letter, asking him for more information on his family and background so that they could better understand his daughter’s calling as a Slayer. They’d received an angry phone call from a man named Clay Morrow demanding to know what and who they were talking about because he didn’t have a daughter. So, in an attempt to prove themselves, these little go getter Council members had faxed over her birth certificate and a photo of her mother. It seemed Clay had done the math and come to the conclusion that they might not be delusional after all. He’d asked to meet her and given them his address.

Running a hand through her hair distractedly, Faith stepped back inside the motel room. She’d gone outside for privacy when Giles called and now Sam and Dean both looked up from the research they’d been doing.

“Everything okay?” Dean asked, noting her paleness and the wide eyed, shocky look about her.

“Five by five. I, um- I guess I… gotta go to California,” she said, blinking a few times before her eyes focused on his face.

“What’s in California?” Sam asked.

“Um… my father.”

~*~

Sam pulled up the address from his email account and scribbled it on the motel stationary pad before they packed their things and loaded them into the Impala.

“You guys don’t have to do this,” Faith said again. “I can take a bus or something.”

“Right, like we’re just gonna stay here while you go meet your dad for the first time,” Dean said, closing the trunk of the Impala.

“Seriously, Faith, it’s fine. We want to go,” Sam said, opening the back door of the car and getting in.

Faith heaved a sigh and opened the passenger door, sliding onto the smooth leather seat and looking over at Dean, who was starting the car. The engine rumbled to life and Faith leaned her head back on the seat, staring up at the roof of the car as Dean pulled out of the motel parking lot and wondering what her father was like.

~*~


	2. Take Me As I Am

Faith was asleep when they crossed out of Nevada and into California. Sam was in the backseat, dozing and Dean was singing an AC/DC tune under his breath, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. It was almost 7:00am and he’d been driving all night, fueled by buckets of gas station coffee. He glanced over at Faith, sleeping in the passenger seat, her bare feet on the dashboard, knees drawn up to her chest, one of his old flannels covering her like a blanket. She never could sleep in socks, not even in the car. He reached forward and turned the defrost all the way to hot so her toes would stay warm. She always had cold feet.

The strangeness wasn’t lost on him. Six months earlier, he never would have believed he’d be with a girl long enough to learn much more than her name. When he and Sam had bumped into Faith on a vampire hunt in New Orleans, he’d thought it was hot as hell that she was dusting vamps in tight leather pants and a red halter top, a wicked smile painted on those gorgeous lips. She’d gone back to the motel with them after that and Sam had gotten a second room. That had been the way of it since then. Somehow, she’d ended up leaving town with them and taken up residence in their lives.

Dean saw the sign that said “Charming 10 miles” and pulled off at the next truck stop he saw. Leaning over, he stroked a lock of Faith’s hair behind her ear and her eyes snapped open. Her body tensed until her eyes focused on his face and then he felt her relax. She stretched, catlike with a groan and Sam sat up in the backseat.

“We there?” he asked.

“Almost. Ten more miles. I figured we’d get something to eat, change clothes before we get there. Sign says there’s showers and I’m seriously in need of one.”

“Yeah, I’ll second that,” Sam said and Dean flipped him off.

The three of them climbed out of the car and grabbed their bags from the trunk, locking the car up tight before they made their way inside.

~*~

The shower room was dingy and cold, but the water was hot and Faith let it pound on her shoulders for a few minutes before she got down to business. She washed up and dried off, hesitating over her bag, uncharacteristically hesitant about picking out her clothes. She dug through the bag, finally deciding that her father should meet the real her, right up front, right away. She pulled on her leather pants, lacing up the fly and tying them off before she shimmied into the tight black tank top. She put on socks and stepped into her boots, grabbing her hairbrush and making her way to the mirrors.

When she was through, Faith Lehane stared back at her from the cracked mirror. Her hair was wet, but drying in waves, chestnut streaked with a few lighter highlights. Her makeup wasn’t as heavy as she’d once worn it, just a little mascara and some pale lip gloss. Several inches of skin showed between the hem of her shirt and the low waistband of her pants and her eyes flickered over the black tattoo on her bicep. She took a breath and let it out slow. Her father was just going to have to deal with the real her, take it or leave it, tattoos and all.

~*~

Clay Morrow opened his garage that morning just like he did every day. Gemma was in the office, Jax and Lowell flipping on the overhead lights in the garage, preparing to start their day. The rumble of a powerful engine pulling into the lot drew all of their attention and they gathered in the roll up doorway, watching the black ’67 Impala roll to a stop in front of them. The doors opened and two men and a young woman stepped out of the vehicle.

“Morning,” the driver said.

“Morning. Help you?” Jax asked, watching them walk slowly toward them.

“Yeah, we’re looking for Clay Morrow,” said the taller guy.

“You found him,” Clay said, stepping forward and crossing his arms over his chest.

“Oh, right, well… uh,” the tall guy faltered and Clay narrowed his gaze, watching as he glanced at the girl, almost nervously.

“I’m Faith,” she said and he stared at her, blankly for a moment. “Faith Lehane. Your daughter.”

~*~


	3. Welcome to the Family

~*~

A daughter. When he’d gotten the letter a few days back, Clay had been confused, then pissed that someone was trying to pin a kid on him. He’d called the number on the stationary and gotten some British kid who’d ended up faxing him a copy of a birth certificate and the grainy, black and white photo of a woman. Problem was, he sort of recognized her from a run he’d made to Boston once upon a time. He looked at the dates, did a bit of quick math in his head and then demanded to speak to this girl. An older man had taken the phone then and it sounded like the kid was in some kind of shit for talking to him. “Mr. Giles” as he’d introduced himself, had promised to call his daughter and give her his address, set up a meet. Since they were all the way on the other side of the world, riding over to kick his ass and beat the information out of him just didn’t seem plausible. So Clay let it go, decided to give it a week and if he didn’t hear anything by then, he was buying a plane ticket dammit.

Turned out he wouldn’t have to, though. She was there, standing in front of him and she was beautiful. Slender, compact frame that somehow managed to still be solid, strong, with painted on leather pants and black tank top and boots. There was a tattoo on her arm, some kind of symbol and her hair tumbled around her shoulders, loose and casual. She had her mother’s mouth, he decided, studying her face, but those eyes, penetrating, intense, a the moment looking unsure, those were all him.

“She has your eyes,” Gemma said, quietly from beside him. She’d taken the news of his sudden fatherhood well, he supposed, though it was definitely made easier by the fact that this girl was an adult and had already been born by the time Clay had married Gemma.

Clay felt a shove on the back of his shoulder and turned to glare at Jax, who was looking at him, expectantly.

“Go, man, she’s your daughter,” Jax said, nodding toward the girl, who still hadn’t moved. The two men with her had closed ranks around her, moving in close, as if to back her up if she needed it. He wondered who they were, if she was sleeping with one of them, or both of them and he felt an unfamiliar surge of protectiveness from somewhere. He was still trying to sort it all out when Gemma gave an exasperated huff and pushed past him, striding toward the girl, Faith, she’d said her name was.

Gemma pulled her into an abrupt hug, which Faith awkwardly returned.

“Hi, honey, I’m Gemma, Clay’s wife,” she said and Faith seemed to relax a little.

“So, you’re my-“

“Step mom, I guess,” Gemma said, pulling back and looking her up and down with obvious approval. She turned and gestured to Clay, Lowell and Jax. “These guys are still trying to pull their heads outta their asses, so you’ll have to give ‘em a minute. I’m sure they’ll remember their manners eventually.”

Lowell came forward immediately, his hand extended and Faith shook it.

“I’m Lowell,” he said, a little nervously. “I just work here.”

“Lowell’s part of the family,” Gemma corrected and Lowell blushed a deep red before he stepped aside.

“Mom’s a little pushy if you didn’t notice,” said Jax, stepping up, his hands in his pockets. “I’m Jax.”

“He’s your stepbrother,” Gemma told her, rolling her eyes and then looking back at Clay, expectantly.

He cleared his throat and stepped forward, strangely unsure of himself. It was only a few feet between them but it seemed like he crossed miles of blacktop before he was standing in front of her. He saw her fists clench and relax at her sides, as if she too were trying to figure out what to do with her hands.

“So,” Faith said, looking up at him. “I guess you’re my dad, right?”

“Looks like it,” Clay replied, equally awkward.

“Oh, for shit’s sake, Clay, she’s your daughter. Hug her already,” Gemma said and Clay rolled his eyes. Faith’s lips twitched into a smile and she stepped forward, hesitantly. Some sort of restraint in Clay broke then and he hugged her, wrapping his arms around her and squeezing, feeling her arms around his neck, taking a half a second just to wonder that this was his flesh and blood. He was a father all the sudden and his little girl wasn’t a baby wrapped in pink blankets, but a full-grown woman. Clay’s eyes flicked to the two men standing behind Faith and he amended that realization. A full-grown woman who came complete with a couple of boys for her dad to grill.

~*~

Faith was hugging her father, her father, and strange that it was, it felt good. He was strong, solid, with broad shoulders, powerful arms and her own eyes staring back at her. He wore jeans and a t-shirt and a leather vest that she hadn’t had time to read yet. Her stepbrother, Jax, was wearing one that was almost identical and she had to wonder if it was some sort of uniform. After all, the garage was a family owned business right?

She stepped back and saw that Clay was looking over her shoulder at Sam and Dean.

“Who’re your friends, darlin’?” he asked, the term rolling easily from his lips and she found, strangely, that she liked the sound of it.

“This is Dean and Sam Winchester,” she said and they shook hands with her father one at a time, then with Jax, who’d stepped up to Clay’s side.

“So…” Faith said, unsure what they were supposed to do next.

“Why don’t we all go inside while I call in some of the boys to help out with the garage,” Gemma said and Clay looked at her, affection clear on his face, despite the aura of toughness that just sort of clung to him.

“Good call, baby. Get Juice and Tig, then we’ll head over to the clubhouse,” he said, turning to follow her into the office. Bringing up the rear with Dean, Sam and Jax, Faith finally got a look at the back of her father’s vest.

“Sons of Anarchy” was proudly printed on a banner across the top, with “California” on the bottom and a picture of a reaper in the middle, holding a crystal ball. The small “MC” patch off to the side tied it all together and Faith couldn’t help but grin. Looked like her dad was a biker.

~*~

Turned out her dad wasn’t just a biker, he was the biker, president of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original Chapter or SAMCRO. The inside of their clubhouse was like Disneyland for men and Dean was more than happy to join Jax at the bar for a few drinks. Sam was distracted, staring at the walls, at the mug shots and banners and other miscellaneous paraphernalia while Faith sat down with her father at a table.

“Well, I guess that explains Sam Crow,” Faith said, nodding at the tapestry on the wall.

“What do you mean?” Clay asked.

“It was pretty much all my mom ever said if I asked about you. Your name was Clay and all that mattered to you was Sam Crow so quit asking questions,” she told him.

Clay gave a dry chuckle and tipped back the cup of coffee he’d poured from a carafe behind the bar.

“That sounds like your mom alright.”

“So, you knew her pretty well?” Faith asked, hearing the vulnerability in her own voice and hating it.

“I knew her for a week, sweetheart,” Clay said, his tone a touch softer than before. “We met at a patch over bash. She was… well, she was just one of those girls that hang out at the clubhouses. We hit it off, but it was never meant to be more than it was. We both knew that going in.”

“Look, you don’t have to explain,” she told him, but he held up a hand and she fell silent.

“I never knew about you. She said she was on the pill and I was stupid and then I left and never heard from her again. If I knew… well it woulda been different. Not a happy family probably, but you know, different.”

“I get it,” she said. “She screwed us both. You didn’t get to change my diapers and watch my school plays and I didn’t get a dad. It’s water under the bridge.”

“Right,” Clay agreed, nodding and glancing over to where Jax was sitting with Dean. Sam had just joined them. “So those two… how long you been riding with them?”

~*~

“So how long have you known Faith?” Jax asked and Sam glanced at Dean before he answered.

“About six months,” Sam said, accepting a cup of coffee from a young guy who’d appeared from the back of the clubhouse. His vest said “Prospect” and that’s what Jax had called him too, so Sam had no idea what his name was. He was guessing that a Prospect was sort of like a Pledge in a fraternity, so this guy was the overall gopher and slave for the others, at least until he earned his place.

“She your old lady?” Jax asked and Sam nearly spit his coffee all over the bar. He managed to choke it down and cleared his throat a few times.

“Uh, no. She’s just my friend. She’s sort of with Dean,” Sam said, looking at his brother and wondering why he hadn’t spoken up yet. Could be he just didn’t know what to say. Dean didn’t usually meet the families of the girls he was sleeping with. Then again, he normally didn’t sleep with the same girl for more than a few days either.

“What do you mean, sort of?” Jax asked Dean, his eyes narrowing a little and Sam bit back a groan. He could see some sort of big brother protective instinct thing kicking in with Jax. “You’re either together or you’re not. You sleepin’ with her?”

“Yeah, I am,” Dean finally spoke up. “Pretty much every night for the last six months. You got a problem with that?” The natural defiance that Dean carried in his very DNA was rearing its head and Sam was getting more and more tense by the second, just waiting for this to turn ugly.

“No problem, not if she’s your old lady,” Jax said and Dean smirked.

“Few things you need to learn about your new little sister, Jax. One of ‘em is she isn’t anyone’s old lady.”

~*~


	4. On the Road Again

Faith and Clay were still at the table, talking and Faith was picking at a plate of fries when the clubhouse doors opened and a handful of men in blue jeans and leather walked in. They all wore the SAMCRO logo on their vests, which Clay had told her were called cuts, not vests.

Sam and Dean were playing pool with Jax and the Prospect and Faith could’ve sworn she’d heard Jax call the boy “Half-Sack”. She decided she really didn’t want to ask about that one. She looked up over Clay’s shoulder when the men walked in and saw them staring at her, and looking Sam and Dean over suspiciously. Gemma brought up the rear and closed the doors behind them, meeting Faith’s curious gaze and giving her a reassuring smile as she joined them. She stood beside Clay’s chair and he looked up at her, tapping his forefinger against his mouth. Gemma smiled and leaned down, kissing him and Faith smiled a little. For a big bad biker king, her father was sort of sweet.

When Gemma stepped back, Clay got to his feet and turned to face the room of men.

“Clay, who are these clowns?” asked an old man with oxygen tubes in his nose. He gestured with one hand toward Dean and Sam.

“Friends, Piney, so ease down,” Jax said, leaning back against the pool table with his arms crossed.

“And the pretty piece?” asked a guy with wild black hair and pale blue eyes, nodding toward Faith.

She saw Jax’s eyebrows go up and Gemma went still, waiting, tensely.

“The pretty piece, Tig,” Clay said, slowly, “is my daughter, Faith.”

“Oh, shit, I’m sorry, Clay,” Tig said, eyes going wide. “Really, I didn’t know, I’m sorry.”

“You know now, Tig,” Clay said, and then let his gaze travel over all of them. “You all know now, so watch yourselves.”

~*~

Faith had never really been part of a family before. Oh, sure, she spent a lot of time at Slayer headquarters, even had a room there that Dawn insisted was “hers”, but it wasn’t the same, not really. She was close to Dawn, sort of like a sister, she supposed, but outside of that, Faith was just a general in an army of Slayers, part of the ranks because of a calling she’d had no control over. What she’d found here was something else entirely.

Gemma and the other women moved around the kitchen easily, talking, laughing and cooking while Faith tried to stay out of their way. She’d been warmly welcomed and they all kept talking to her, asking her questions, trying to draw her in and damn if it didn’t feel good. She even made a solid attempt at participation, offering to slice vegetables, since she figured that would be kind of hard to mess up. She could hear the men in on the patio, through the sliding glass door, her father’s voice, Jax, even Dean and Sam.

They were a Motorcycle Club, a biker gang and yet, here they were, more of a family than anything Faith had ever been part of. When the food was done, they gathered around a long table, crammed in close together, everyone passing bowls and platters, reaching around each other. Their shoulders brushed against one another, elbows bumping, but no one seemed to care. They were all talking, laughing, telling stories and having a good time. Faith glanced at Sam and Dean and was almost a little relieved to see them looking a little out of their element as well. They weren’t used to this anymore than she was, but they seemed to be holding up fairly well.

The gathering slowly dispersed as the night wore on and at midnight, Faith was up to her elbows in soapy water, helping Gemma clean up the kitchen. She could hear Dean and Jax in the back yard, picking up beer cans and what not while Sam and Clay carried in more dishes from the dining room.

“Where you stayin’ tonight, Faith?” Gemma asked, as she rinsed another plate and set it in the drain rack.

“We’ll get a room at that motel near the garage, most likely,” Faith said, handing her a soapy glass.

“No need for that, darlin’,” Clay said, setting the last of the dishes on the counter beside her. “You can stay here.”

“Clay, I’m pretty sure she’d like her privacy,” Gemma said, rolling her eyes at Faith, who couldn’t help but grin.

“What, I can’t ask my daughter to stay at my house on the day I finally meet her?” Clay asked.

“There’s a couple of empty rooms at the clubhouse,” Jax said, as he and Dean came through the door and heard the conversation. “They’re not fancy or anything, but it won’t cost anything and no one will bother you.”

“She can’t stay at the-“ Clay started but Gemma overrode him.

“That sounds fine, Jax, doesn’t it Faith?” she asked, looking at Faith.

“Oh, uh- yeah, that sounds great. Dean? Sam?” she said, turning around to look at them.

“Sure,” Sam agreed.

“Works for me,” Dean said with a shrug. “Where should I park the Impala?”

“Just park it out front, it’ll be fine,” Clay said, apparently giving in on the subject of Faith’s lodging.

“No one will mess with her, no pranks or anything like that?” Dean asked and Jax laughed.

“Believe me, man, no matter how much they want to screw with someone, none of the boys would mess with a machine that sweet.”

~*~

Faith traced her nails lightly over Dean’s chest, her head resting on his shoulder. She found a scar and followed it across his skin until he caught her hand and drew it to his mouth, pressing a kiss into her palm.

“Mmm,” she said, smiling and pushing up on her elbow so she could look down at him. “I guess it’s a good thing we decided to stay here instead of Clay’s house. I don’t think his hida-bed would have been able to handle that.”

Dean smirked and turned on his side to face her.

“Probably not,” he agreed, stretching a little and feeling the ache in his muscles. It wasn’t a bad sort of pain, though. “But I think your father might’ve had more of a problem with it than his furniture.”

“You okay with all this?” Faith asked, her smile fading into something more serious. She and Dean didn’t usually get into deep conversations. Neither of them was the caring and sharing type, so talking about their feelings was sort of out of the question most of the time. Still, he’d come along on this little family bonding adventure of hers, so she figured she owed it to him to make sure he was dealing with it.

“I’m fine. Your dad seems like a good guy. Jax is cool and your new mom is great. I think this was a good idea, coming here.”

~*~

Sam had officially decided that coming here to meet Faith’s family was a good idea. He was sitting at the bar in the clubhouse and there was a very pretty blond girl watching him from across the room. He’d gotten the idea from a few of the guys that if he made a move she’d definitely respond in kind, because he was a friend of the club.

“We’re very hospitable to our friends, Sam,” Piney told him, adjusting his oxygen tubes with a grin.

“I’m beginning to see that,” Sam agreed, lifting his drink in salute. It was sometime after 2:00am and Dean and Faith had gone to bed long ago, though Sam had no illusions that they were actually sleeping. He’d watched the look on Jax’s face when the two of them had disappeared down the hallway and was vaguely amused by the indecision he’d seen there. Faith’s new brother was obviously feeling the urge to protect her or defend her honor or something. Sam was fairly certain that would pass once he got to know her a little better.

“So, what do you do, Sam, when you’re not hanging out in the clubhouse?” asked Tig, sliding onto the stool beside him.

“I, uh- hunt,” Sam said, leaving the term open for interpretation. Usually, people assumed he was a game hunting guide or something like that, but Tig’s eyes glinted, strangely and he glanced at Piney, who nodded.

“Something tells me you aren’t hunting Bambi, Winchester. That’s cool, your business and all that. Just remember, you ever feel the need for heavier firepower than that Colt you’re carrying under your jacket there, this is the place to come,” Tig said.

Sam glanced down at himself, checking to see if he was flashing the weapon, but it was covered as always. Tig, he concluded, was just very good at spotting concealed weapons on a person. That took practice and Sam found himself musing about what kind of activities the club engaged in.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Sam agreed, then looked over at the blond again. Tig grinned and clapped a hand on his shoulder.

“Go to it, man, before you waste the whole night just lookin’ at her,” he said, giving Sam a little shove off the bar stool. Sam set his drink on the bar and took Tig’s suggestion.

~*~

Faith was eating breakfast with Gemma and Clay at a diner near the garage when Jax walked in with Dean and Sam. The guys had gone to the garage to check out the bikes and give Faith a little more time with Clay, but now Sam looked anxious. Faith got to her feet as they approached.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, looking at Dean.

“Bobby called. We gotta go,” Dean said and Faith felt an unfamiliar pang of being torn. She wanted to stay with her father, to get to know him, but she was a Slayer and it was her job to hunt these things.

“Um, give us a sec?” she said and Clay nodded.

“Sure honey, take your time,” Gemma said and Faith grabbed Dean and Sam by the jacket sleeves and dragged them outside the diner, leaving Jax behind with Clay and Gemma.

“What’s going on?” she asked, once they were outside.

“Demons, we think. There’s been omens and Bobby’s worried,” Sam told her.

Faith sighed. There were times when she truly hated her job.

“Okay. I’ll tell Clay there’s been an emergency-“ she started but Dean cut her off.

“No. You need to stay here, spend some time with your family,” he said, glancing at the diner window. He could see Clay behind the glass, watching them.

“You’re sure?” Faith said and her voice held a world of uncertainty. She was asking so much more than the words she spoke. Was this it? She’d found her family, so he was walking away?

“The job shouldn’t take long. We’ll be back in a week or two, tops,” Dean said, meeting her eyes. He knew perfectly well what she was thinking. It was good she wasn’t the hysterical type, but sometimes this speaking and reading between the lines was a pain. There were times when just saying things out loud would save a whole lot of trouble.

“I’m, uh, gonna go get some coffee to go and let Gemma and Clay know that our Uncle Bobby is having some health issues,” Sam said, giving her their cover story and disappearing quickly into the diner. He’d always been a quick study and he somehow always knew when the two of them had things they needed to say to one another, sometimes before they knew themselves.

“I’m coming back, Faith,” he told her, catching her wrist and pulling her closer, putting her hand on his shoulder. She took the hint and slid her arms around his neck. He pressed his hands at the small of her back, pulling her against him and looking down at her.

“You don’t have to,” she told him, something inside her breaking even as she said it.

“I know I don’t have to. I said I’m coming back, as soon as this job’s taken care of,” he promised.

“I’m gonna hold you to it, then,” she said, smiling a little.

“You do that. I’ll be back as soon as I can. I’d hate to see what your daddy would do to the guy that hurts his baby girl,” he teased, then hissed when she stomped on his foot.


	5. Find What You're Looking For

~*~

“So I guess I’ll see you?” Faith said, hands in her back pockets. She’d already grabbed her bags from the Impala’s trunk and Sam had given her a quick hug and loaded into the car. They’d told Clay and Gemma that their Uncle Bobby was having heart trouble and had to have an operation. As Uncle Bobby’s only relatives, they really needed to be there, at the hospital, just in case. Dean closed the trunk and stepped toward Faith, jingling his keys in one hand.

“Yeah, Uncle Bobby says it should take more than a week or two. Uh, that’s what his doctor told him,” he added, remembering that they had an audience.

“Call me, let me know that, um, Uncle Bobby’s surgery goes well?” Faith asked and Dean nodded.

“Sure, we’ll keep you updated,” he said, then cursed under his breath and stepped forward, kissing her hard. When he pulled back, he rested his head against hers for a moment and his voice was low. “It’ll be fine. Get to know your dad, go shopping with your new mom. We’ll be back in no time and you can get back to the vampires and demons, okay?”

“Shopping. Right. Just don’t die, okay? And keep an eye on Sammy,” she told him, equally quiet.

“Always,” he promised, stepping back and walking toward the car. “I’ll see you soon,” he added, in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear.

“You better,” she muttered, watching him get into the Impala. The engine rumbled to life and then they were gone, disappearing down the road.

~*~

She meant to call. Honestly, she didn’t ignore all of Dawn’s phone calls and text messages on purpose.

Faith wasn’t sure what it was, exactly, but some part of her didn’t want to talk to Dawn or anyone else about her father, not yet. She never had been good at sharing. So she supposed it was her own fault, in the end.

She was kneeling beside the motorcycle in the garage, following Jax’s instructions to change the carburetor when a set of black sandals on dainty feet came into view. Jax had fallen silent and Faith frowned and leaned around the bike, following the legs up to a denim mini-skirt and a white button up dress shirt that was tied off an inch or so above the waistband of the skirt. The shirt was sleeveless and the bare arms were crossed, finger tapping in a familiar, annoyed fashion. Faith finished the sweep quickly, taking in the long dark hair, secured in a knot at the back of her head, leaving loose locks around the high cheekbones and wide, bright blue eyes.

“Hey, Dawnie.”

“You know, the bike’s sweet and the guy’s hot, Faith, but that doesn’t give you an excuse not to return my phone calls,” Dawn said, raising an eyebrow.

“You’re right, the bike’s sweet, but the hot guy’s my brother and I meant to call back. I just forgot,” Faith said, grabbing a rag and wiping her hands clean before she got to her feet. “So how’d you find me?”

Dawn was blushing a little, refusing to look at Jax now that Faith had made it clear he wasn’t her boy toy of the week.

“I, uh, called Giles. He wouldn’t tell me much, but he gave me this address, said I could probably find you here. What do you mean, this is your brother? You don’t have a brother. What’s going on, Faith?” Dawn asked, looking worried.

Faith heaved a sigh and looked over at Jax, who seemed amused and, well, interested. He was looking at Dawn like she was a new and fascinating engine for him to learn.

“Jax is my step-brother. The Council found my father, Dawn. This is his garage,” Faith said. Dawn just stared at her for a second, silent, shocked.

“Well,” she said finally, once it sunk in. “I guess that’s a good reason for you to be here then. Meeting your father… gives you a free pass this time, for not calling me, I mean,” Dawn conceded.

“Right. Thanks for that. Jax, this is Dawn Summers. Dawn, Jax Teller,” Faith said.

“Nice to meet you. You’re a friend of Faith’s?” Jax said and Dawn nodded.

“Known her forever,” Dawn agreed.

“So, you just dropped in to see if I was alive?” Faith asked.

“Something like that,” Dawn said.

Faith tossed her rag down beside the toolbox.

“Jax, I’m gonna take a break,” she said and he nodded.

“Take as long as you want,” Jax told her.

Faith led Dawn away from the garage, out into the parking lot, in the general direction of the office, walking slowly so they could talk.

“I sort of told Giles and everyone else that I wasn’t coming back for a while,” Dawn said, shoving her hands into the pockets of her skirt.

“Why? Just cause you were worried? Don’t you think that’s sort of overkill?” Faith asked.

“No, I mean, yeah, but that’s not all. Just… needed to get away,” Dawn admitted. “So… I don’t want to intrude on your family time, but-“

“It’s fine, Dawn. You’ll stay with me, at the clubhouse. Well, unless my dad has a problem with that,” she amended. “Then we’ll go stay at a motel together.”

“Clubhouse?”

Faith sighed.

“Something you should know about my dad, Dawn…”

~*~

“This one your daughter too, Clay?” asked Tig, eyeing Dawn carefully. They were in the garage, after closing and Gemma and Clay were finishing up some paperwork.

“Far as you’re concerned, Tig, yeah, she is,” Clay said, without looking up from his ledger.

Tig’s muttered “dammit” made Faith smirk. Jax finished putting away his tools and cleaned his hands in the utility sink before making his way over to where they were gathered.

“Hey, Faith, why don’t I take you and Dawn over to the diner to get something to eat for dinner? There’s not much in the kitchen at the clubhouse.”

“That sounds like a great idea, Jax,” Gemma said.

“Yeah, Jax, that’d be great,” Faith said, smirking. She had a pretty good idea who it was Jax wanted to take out to dinner.

“We’ll see you kids in a bit. Just gotta finish up a few… things,” Gemma said and Clay paused at her tone, his head coming up to look at his wife, meaningfully.

“I’m outta here,” Tig said, getting to his feet. “See you all later.”

He was out the door then and Jax and Faith were both rolling their eyes and heading for the door, Dawn between them.

“Did she mean what I think she meant?” Dawn asked, wincing a little.

“Yeah, she really did,” Jax said with a grin and Faith laughed.

“Gemma’s definitely still got it, Dawn. We can only hope to still be that hot when we get older,” Faith said, laughter in her voice and Dawn blinked, staring at her in wonder, but quickly wiping the look of her face before Faith could see it. She’d never heard that tone from Faith, that easy, casual laughter, never seen her interact with anyone the way she did with these people. Sure, she laughed all the time, a harsh, self-mocking or sarcastic laughter usually and she moved through every room with confidence. But here, with her family, it was clear that Faith felt she belonged, completely and without reservation.

The idea that Faith’s real family was a Motorcycle Club, bikers, was, to be honest, sort of poetic. Faith had given her the quick version of it all in the parking lot before she’d taken her into the office and introduced her to Clay and Gemma. It was a lot to take in, but Dawn was glad that Faith had found her family and that they were so very perfect for her.

~*~

Daughters were terrifying. Clay had come that realization about the time Tig made his first crack about her being a “pretty piece” and it had only gotten worse since then. All the boys were hot for her, though none were suicidal enough to voice it. Besides, she had a man, right? That Dean guy? Then again, she hadn’t mentioned him since he’d taken off. Maybe there was more to his leaving than a family emergency. He was going to ask, but Gemma said not to. Said girls were more complicated and he bowed to her wisdom. Still, Faith was fitting in, to his business, his club, his family. She worked in the garage alongside the guys, was good with engines and learning more each day. He was proud of her, saw bits of himself in her at random, odd moments, found himself thinking of getting her a bike of her own, since she seemed to love riding. It wasn’t club custom. Their women drove cars, but he had a feeling his Faith would prefer something with two wheels.

She’d gotten close to Jax, he was glad to see. Jax had taken to the big brother gig like he’d been born to it. That was good, Jax would look after her when Clay couldn’t. Regardless of whether Faith thought she needed looking after. She was just a girl, right?

Then her friend, Dawn shows up and turns things all sideways again. There’s two girls living in his clubhouse and damned if he doesn’t feel responsible for both of them. The boys were getting antsy with it, sort of like taunting a heroin addict with a needle full of product. He wondered, idly, if all of his daughter’s friends were gorgeous, model quality girls.

Then there was the light guilt that was eating at him for keeping Faith so out of the loop about the real family business. Still, the club had voted and two weeks was a little soon to be telling anyone new about the gun trade. Also, he was pretty sure Faith was keeping some secrets of her own. Several nights in a row Piney said Faith and Dawn had slipped out of the clubhouse and been gone for a few hours. No one knew where they’d gone, but Jax was going to watch and call him the next time it happened so they could follow and find out what was happening.

~*~

Faith got behind the wheel of the loaner car her dad had been letting her drive. It was an older sedan, but it ran great and Dawn climbed into the passenger seat beside her.

“Where we headed tonight?” Dawn asked, buckling her seat belt.

“Two towns over. They’ve got a couple of nice cemeteries, bound to be some action there,” Faith said, putting the car in gear and pulling out of the parking lot.

~*~

Jax flipped his cell phone closed and tucked it in his pocket before pulling out onto the road. He stayed quite a ways behind Faith’s car, so she wouldn’t spot him quite so quickly. Clay wanted him to follow her and let him know when she stopped. He was getting dressed and planned to join Jax as soon as they had an idea of her destination.

They drove for about thirty miles before pulling into a gas station on the outskirts of town. Jax pulled around the side of the building and killed the engine on his bike so he could hear what they were saying.

“…and don’t forget the muffins, Dawnie! You know I’m always starving afterward!” Faith was calling out as Dawn went into the store.

Jax bit back a groan. Faith sounded up, excited and Jax was hoping like hell he wasn’t going to end up having to tell Clay that Faith was hooking up at some party.

~*~

Faith stretched as she stepped out of the car, then reached into the backseat and grabbed her stake, tucking it into her back pocket as Dawn armed herself.

“Ready?” Dawn asked and Faith flashed her a grin.

“Baby, I was born ready,” she quipped and Dawn rolled her eyes.

“That was lame,” she muttered and Faith laughed, leading the way into the cemetery.


	6. Got A Secret, Can You Keep It

~*~

“What the hell is she doing?” Jax mumbled, parking his bike and following the two girls into the graveyard.

The last thing he was prepared to see was some loser in a cheap suit jumping out from behind a crypt and attacking his sister. He started to shout, but choked it back as Faith and Dawn both turned like they’d been expecting him. Dawn stepped back, calmly and Faith stepped right into him, shoving what looked like a wooden spike through his chest. Jax blinked, wondering if someone had spiked the coffee he’d had right before he left when the guy burst into a cloud of dust.

“What the hell?” he muttered, creeping closer, weaving around the gravestones. Faith was dusting herself off and Dawn was shaking her head.

“That guy was sloppy. Seriously, how are you supposed to keep your skills sharp if that’s all you have to work with?”

“Sorry, Dawnie, but Dad and Jax and the boys keep Charming clear of dead bodies and this is the best we’ve got.”

“I still don’t get that,” Dawn said, sighing in an aggravated way. “How the hell does your dad’s club keep the vampires from hunting in his town? Its not like he even knows about them, right?”

“That’s just it,” Faith answered, stretching, idly. “If they were hunting and leaving dead bodies laying around, Dad would notice and he’d get to the bottom of it. Then the secret would be out. Sunnydale never would’ve gotten so screwed if SAMCRO had set up there,” she added decisively.

“Somehow, I don’t think the Hellmouth would show the Sons of Anarchy the same respect as these backwater vampires seem to,” Dawn said, then nodded at something. “Behind you,” she said.

Faith spun and caught the woman in mid air, tossing her easily into a headstone, which cracked under the weight. The woman staggered to her feet, her skirt and suit jacket muddy and torn and went after Faith again. It was a short fight and Faith stabbed her with the same weapon she’d used on the guy. Again, all that remained was a pile of dust and Jax couldn’t take it anymore.

“All right, dammit, what the hell is going on?” he demanded, standing up and walking out of the shadows.

Faith just stared at him, eyes wide and surprised and Dawn sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose with two fingers.

“Faith? What just happened?” he asked, looking at her, hard and Faith groaned, leaning back against a headstone and letting her head fall back. She stared at the stars for a minute, as if seeking answers somewhere up there before she looked at him again.

“So, what did you hear?” she asked, miserably.

“Oh, all of it. What did you do to those people? Were they vampires?” he asked, impatiently.

“Oh for sobbing out loud,” Dawn muttered, stepping forward. “She’s a Slayer, Jax.”

He frowned.

“Like the band?”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Faith snapped and Dawn rolled her eyes.

“No. A vampire Slayer. Used to be one girl in all the world chosen to fight the forces of darkness and yadda, yadda, yadda,” Dawn said, beginning to pace in small circles as she spoke. She was going into “Watcher Mode” as Faith called it. “Now, though, thanks to some mojo by Willow, our resident witch-“

“Witch?” Jax interrupted and Faith shot him a silencing look.

“-she cast a spell, turning all potential Slayers into the real deal,” Dawn continued, ignoring him. “So, now there’s sort of an army of them and Faith is one of the generals.”

“A general,” Jax said, doubtfully and Faith groaned.

“Look,” she told him, bluntly, “I helped to train some Slayers and fight a big evil a few years back, so the general/army motif sort of stuck with us. Truth is, I fight the big bad things that go bump in the night, things most people don’t know about. It’s sort of my job.”

“Who gave you the job?” Jax wanted to know and Faith stepped forward, fisting her hand in his shirt and lifting him off the ground with one hand. She set him down easily and stepped back.

“It sort of chose her,” Dawn said. “She didn’t get a say in it.”

“So, now what?” Faith asked, anxiously, refusing to look him in the eye.

“Now, we wait for Clay and explain all of this to him. He’ll be here in a few minutes,” Jax said and Faith turned and walked away.

~*~

She didn’t go far, just to the car, hopping up onto the hood to wait for her father to arrive. There was no point in running. They’d find her… unless they didn’t want to.

And that was the problem. Once they knew the truth, she had no idea if her family would still want her. What if they learned all of it? Even the bad stuff? Would Clay and Jax and Gemma and the guys still be so accepting of her if they knew she was a criminal?

The rumble of Clay’s bike echoed through the empty cemetery as he rolled into the parking lot and pulled up next to her car. Jax and Dawn had joined her by then and Faith stayed pretty quiet as Jax told Clay what he’d seen and nothing more.

Clay’s brow furrowed and he looked at Faith.

“What is this, Faith?”

“It’s me, Da- Clay,” she corrected herself. She was pulling back, distancing herself so maybe it would be so bad when he didn’t want her any more. “It’s the real me. I’m a Slayer, I always will be. Can’t change it, or make it go away, sorry.”

“Explain?” Clay said, deciding he might get a better response from Dawn.

Dawn spilled it all, the vampires, the strength, the magic, the demons, all of it and when she was through, Faith was chewing her thumbnail to the quick. Clay was silent for a few moments, just taking it all in, then he straightened up, looking at Dawn first.

“You’re blunt, keep to the point. I like that,” he told her. Then he looked at Faith and she braced herself.

“Go ahead, Clay, say your piece,” she said, as mildly as she could.

“First of all, I don’t care how easily you think you can kick my ass, my name is Dad to you, girl,” he told her and something tight in her chest seemed to break, the tension draining from her shoulders as he spoke.

“Now, let me get a few things straight,” Clay said, speaking slowly, as if talking to crazy people. “Vampires are real. So are demons and witches and ghosts. And Faith, here, along with a bunch of little girls all over the world, is destined to hunt them and save mankind from the forces of darkness. How’m I doin’ so far?”

Dawn groaned aloud and Faith sighed, heavily. He thought they were crazy. Great. But he still wanted her as his daughter. That was a good sign, right?

“I swear it’s the truth, Clay,” Dawn was saying. “We’re not candidates for the funny farm. Ask Jax, he saw Faith dust two vampires right before you got here!”

Clay looked at Jax.

“What’d you see, Jackson?” he asked, using Jax’s full name and a tone that clearly meant not to bullshit him.

Jax sighed and rubbed a hand over his face before he spoke, fully aware that he sounded insane.

“It’s true, Clay. A man jumped them and Faith shoved the stake into his chest and he sorta… exploded into dust or ashes or something. Then a woman, a few minutes later. They were fast as hell, looked strong, but Faith took them out, no problem.”

“See?” Dawn said, archly and Clay looked at Jax hard.

“Look, I know it’s crazy, but that’s what happened. No bullshit, I swear it,” Jax said and Faith looked at him, grateful for the support.

Clay looked deep in thought for a few moments and Dawn opened her mouth to speak, but Jax gave a subtle shake of his head and she closed it again. When Clay spoke again, his voice sounded thoughtful.

“There was a club a few years back, somewhere down south. Called themselves the Hellions. No one ever really got a good look at them, but when you’d get a glimpse, they never really looked right. Faces shaped wrong, bodies too, sometimes and word was they were pretty hardcore. Tore up small towns left and right until one day they just disappeared.”

“They were demons. They came to Sunnydale when Buffy- when my sister was gone,” Dawn said, quietly.

“Demons. Right,” Clay said, swiping a hand over his face. “I don’t know why I’m even listening to you kids, much less seriously considering this.”

“Look, I’m sorry we brought this to your life, Dad, but I can’t change this. It’s who I am,” Faith said. “Most people, when they find out the thing under the bed is real, they run and hide, have a total freak-out. Others suck it up and deal.”

“So you’ll do this forever then?” Clay asked, still a little shell shocked that he was even thinking about this in a serious manner. “You ever tried, you know, not slaying?”

“Yeah. Things went kind of bad when I did that,” Faith said and Dawn bit her lip. She knew the dark place Faith had gone to, that she was always afraid of going there again.

“She didn’t choose this,” Dawn said and Clay looked at her. “It just… happened one day. The Slayers don’t get a choice. They just get called. What I mean is, it’s not her fault.”

“Yeah,” was all he said to that.

Faith drove home with Dawn in the car and two motorcycles following behind them. They made the trip in silence, pulling into the clubhouse and going inside without a word, leaving Jax to follow them and Clay to make his way back home.

They were changing for bed, Faith in a pair of boxers and an old t-shirt and Dawn in a blue cotton pajama set when Faith finally broke the silence.

“When I was a kid, before things got really bad, I used to have this dream about sneaking out of the house and getting caught by my dad. How screwed up was I, fantasizing about getting grounded?”

“You wanted a dad, Faith. Wanted him to care enough to ground you. It’s not screwed up at all,” Dawn said, turning off the lamp and getting into bed. After a few more moments of silence, Faith spoke again.

“Funny, when I had those dreams, I always thought I’d get caught sneaking out to see a boy, not to go to a cemetery and slay vampires.”

Dawn didn’t know what to say to that, so she said nothing.

~*~

Clay asked for proof. They’d known he would and Dawn had prepared by bringing out a few simple spells that Willow had taught her. She conjured a guiding light in the palm of her hand, made a few wrenches float in the garage and brought a wilted daisy back to full bloom.

Clay had been impressed, but, as he put it, magic tricks weren’t enough. So they took him hunting. The same graveyard as they’d been to the night before and they got lucky. Two new vampires rose, clawing their way out of the ground right in front of him. Jax had gone along for the ride and when Clay started to step forward and help Faith fight, Jax caught his arm to stop him. He paused and watched as she put them down, one after the other, with minimum fuss. Afterward, she turned to him and the look in her eyes was one he’d never forget. She looked so unsure, so desperate for approval, afraid of rejection and he was betting she didn’t even know it. She was a girl, Gemma had told him and that meant that she wanted her daddy to be proud of her, even if she didn’t realize it. He was still absorbing the fact that either they weren’t crazy or he was just as insane as they were, but he wholeheartedly approved of his daughter being able to kick undead ass and he let it show in his face.

“That’s my girl,” was all he said and the grin she gave him was worth having to know about demons and vampires and all the bad things out there.


	7. It's Been A While

~*~

They told Gemma and Dawn did her magic tricks. Gemma believed more easily than the others had, maybe because Clay and Jax were already convinced. Gemma said it was because she could read people and she knew they were telling the truth.

Faith got a call from Dean a week after Clay and Jax caught them at the cemetery. He and Sam were fine, the demons had been taken care of, but Bobby had another job for them and it was important. There were kids involved, he said and she just told him to go, get it done and call when it was finished. She hung up feeling a little steadier about the two of them, but there was still a part of her that would be uneasy until he was back in person.

After that night, whenever Faith and Dawn went out hunting, one of the others tagged along. Clay had given the club the lowdown on the supernatural and they believed, especially since they all went out as a group and got an in your face demonstration in the form of the two girls clearing a nest of vampires, quick and messy. There was a lot of noise and flames and plenty of dust and the boys were convinced. They all looked at Faith with a new respect after that, and Dawn as well. The two girls were no longer just Clay’s daughter and her friend.

Faith whiled away the days in the garage, mostly, or hanging out with her dad, Jax or Gemma. Dawn spent some time helping Gemma in the office, a little bit in the garage with Faith and Jax and some in the clubhouse, cleaning, mostly. She had a mothering streak a mile wide and it wasn’t unusual for her to step up onto the bar and holler out at the boys to get their laundry together or something of that sort. She’d decided they needed taking care of, so she stepped up and took care of them and most of them even appreciated it. Piney took a special liking to Dawn and she was quick to return the old man’s affection.

Piney wasn’t the only one, though, who paid special attention to Dawn. She’d been there nearly a month and half when it happened. She and Faith were hanging out in the clubhouse with the guys, Faith shooting pool with her dad and Dawn sitting at the bar with Piney. Jax had come in later than the others and the music was playing loud from the stereo. The song ended and the opening chords of a power ballad began and the next thing Faith saw, Jax was pulling Dawn onto the floor. She went willingly, blushing, sliding her arms around his neck as he drew her close and Faith grinned. Clay followed her look and couldn’t help but smile himself.

Dawn didn’t go back to the room she shared with Faith that night, or the next. The third day, Faith helped her move her stuff into Jax’s room.

Clay spent more time than Faith knew trying to come to terms with the life that had been forced on his daughter in his absence. He’d talked it out with Gemma, over and over, knowing he couldn’t change a moment of it, but unable to stop. She’d been a kid, just a little girl when this power, this calling changed her. All the sudden she had all these responsibilities, choices to make, monsters to kill. No kid should have to do what she’d done and if he’d been there, he just knew he’d have found a way to stop it, to protect her from this destiny. She’d come out okay, he supposed. She was beautiful, confident, strong and he was proud of the woman she was, but there was a shadow in her eyes, some unconscious flinch when someone reached out that said something inside her was half expecting to be hit instead of touched. At some point, life had chewed Faith up and spit her out and she’d survived, but he wasn’t sure she’d done it completely intact.

~*~

Two months. It’d been two months since he’d seen Faith and Dean was half worried that he’d find a tattooed biker chick on the back of a Harley behind one of Clay’s boys. What he did find was Faith in tight blue jeans and a tank top, hair back in a ponytail, arms and face smeared with grease and a wrench in her hand and it was more than a little disturbing how much that turned him on. The idea of her working on engines made him smile a little as he watched her. She hadn’t noticed them yet and he didn’t want to interrupt. Then he caught sight of Dawn, pulling into the garage on the back of Jax’s bike, Daisy Duke cutoffs baring long, long legs and a cropped leather jacket that showed flashes of her waist when she moved. She swung off the bike expertly and Jax followed as she saw them and gave a squeal, running over to hug both Dean and Sam. Jax’s body language could only be described as possessive and Dean threw a glance at Sam, who’d sort of had a thing for her the few times they’d met her. Sure enough, the look on his brother’s face was a little more than disappointment.

Dawn’s squeal drew Faith’s attention and she put the wrench down, coming out of the shop while wiping the grease from her hands. Dean couldn’t help but stop and watch her walk toward them. The hem of her tank top rode up and he caught a glimpse of new ink, a circle with a crow silhouette tattooed on the inside of her right hipbone. There was a sexy swing to her walk, a self-assured smirk on her face and, if he wasn’t mistaken, a glint of relief in her eyes.

“Hey, stranger,” she said and Dean slid his hands around her waist and yanked her against him, kissing her, hard, without a word.

~*~


	8. Everybody Loves A Clown

~*~

“So, this,” Dean said, tracing his finger over the tattoo, outlining the crow, “I take it there’s a symbolism here?”

They were lying on Faith’s bed in the clubhouse, door locked, sunlight streaming in the window and the sounds of daily life outside the door. She’d dragged him inside shortly after his arrival, much to the amusement of Sam, Dawn and Jax. Faith was fairly certain she’d heard Sam mention something about them being grateful they hadn’t just crawled into the backseat of the Impala. While it was possible they’d done that a time or five, she still made a mental note to hit him later.

Their reunion was hot and sweaty and more intense than Faith could ever remember things being before and now they were simply lying there, tangled in the sheets. Dean pressed his lips to the tattoo and she shivered before she answered.

“I heard Dad talking to Bobby and Jax one night, about wishing I could wear the Reaper,” she started and he smiled.

“A Daughter of Anarchy?” he suggested and she laughed, softly.

“Something like that. Anyway, it’s against Club Charter. No girls allowed and he can’t change it. So, I talked to Gemma. She told me the Club’s women, the ones like her and Luann, that are married in or family, you know, permanent, they wear the crow.”

“And what did Clay say about it?” he wondered and she shook her head.

“He doesn’t know. He’s on a run, won’t be back until tomorrow.”

There was a long silence before either of them spoke again.

“So, if you could, you know, wear the Reaper, join the Club, would you?” Dean finally asked and Faith rolled to look at him, her face serious.

“The Club, it’s sort of like being a Slayer, I guess. Once you’re in, it’s for life and it has to be your everything. You can do other things, have a family and stuff, but your focus has to be SAMCRO first. I couldn’t be one of them and still hunt,” she told him.

“But would you want to? Make this home, stay here with your family?” he pressed and Faith sat up, drawing the sheet around her.

“I’m a Slayer, Dean and a hunter. That’s my life,” she said. “You and Sam and Dawn are my Club.”

“I’m just saying, you have options,” he said and she shook her head.

“I’ve always had options, Dean and this is my life. Now drop it, before I have to hurt you,” she warned, crawling toward him, vaguely menacing.

He smirked and held up his hands in surrender.

“Dropped,” he promised, then grinned as she pounced on him.

~*~

“So, everything taken care of with Bobby and the demons?” Dawn asked Sam and he looked startled, glancing at Jax. Dawn sighed and rolled her eyes. “It’s okay, the secret’s out,” she told him.

“How’d that happen?” he asked, eyebrows raised.

“They got caught,” Jax answered for her, pulling her into his lap. They were at a table in the clubhouse, waiting for Faith and Dean to finish… whatever it was that none of them wanted to think to hard about and Dawn tumbled easily into his arms, a movement that was obviously habit for her, Sam noted. She was easy around Jax, completely relaxed and willing to let him take charge, though Sam had no doubt that the Dawn they all knew could surface in a bossy, pushy, no arguments rush should the occasion arise. While the relationship between Dawn and the biker irked him, he was glad to see that she was at least happy with Jax.

“So everything’s out in the open then?” Sam asked and Dawn nodded, looking a little bit pleased with the fact.

“Good, then I can just tell you straight,” Sam said and Dawn straightened up in Jax’s arms, face serious.

“What is it?”

“We came back in part because Dean wanted to get back to Faith, but also because we followed a job here.”

“What do you mean, followed a job? There’s something that needs slaying coming to Charming?” Jax asked.

“What is it, Sam?” Dawn said.

“Fun Town Carnival,” Sam said and Jax nodded.

“Yeah, they’re setting up over at the fairgrounds right now. They open tomorrow.”

“Right. Well, the last four towns they’ve been to have had several mysterious deaths shortly after Fun Town arrived and the killings stopped when the carnival moved on. We looked back a bit further and found a few more. There were some house fires in the towns without murders, so we kind of think they were covered up.”

“You’re sure about this?” Jax asked and Dawn sighed.

“He’s sure. Sam doesn’t take on a job without plenty of research to back it up. Dean might rush in half cocked, but not Sam,” she said.

“Hey,” came Dean’s voice and they turned to watch him and Faith walk into the room. She was wearing shorts now with her tank top, barefoot, while his clothes were the same, though they looked a little more wrinkled than they had been before. “I heard that,” Dean said, sitting down at their table.

“Good thing it was true then,” Dawn quipped and Dean rolled his eyes.

“Oh, believe me, if there’s one thing he’s not, it’s half c-“ Faith began but Jax held up a hand.

“No! Stop right there! Big brother privilege, I refuse to hear another word on that,” he ordered and Faith grinned and subsided. Dean just looked smug.

“So, we talking about the carnival?” Dean asked. “The civilians a part of the club now?”

“Yeah, they caught me slaying vampires, so Dad, Gemma and the boys are in the know,” Faith said, straddling a chair next to Dean and leaning on the back.

“Right, so what do you think is going on with this Fun Town?” Jax asked.

“Not sure,” Dean said. “Last time we came up against something like this, it was a killer clown, right Sammy?”

“Bite me, jerk,” Sam said.

“Sam has clown fear,” Dean said to Jax. Jax looked at Sam.

“Seriously?”

“Least I’m not afraid of flying,” Sam countered and Dean scowled.

“Hey, planes crash, dude,” he argued.

“And clowns kill,” Sam retorted.

“Enough, you two!” Dawn said and they fell silent, glaring at one another.

“Last time it was a Shaka kahn or something,” Faith said. “Getting kids to invite it in, then munching on the parents.”

“It was a Rakshasa,” Sam corrected, “a Hindu creature and they’re sort of rare, so I doubt that’s what we’ve got here.”

“So what is it then?” Jax asked and Dean and Faith both shrugged.

“Won’t know till we do some more recon,” Dean said.

“And we can’t do that until tomorrow. Clay called earlier, said they’d be in early, like tonight, so we’ll bring him up to speed,” Jax said.

“Great, we got a plan,” Dean said, standing up. “Now, I gotta go get a burger before I starve to death.”

~*~

Clay got in at midnight, with Bobby, Tig, Juice and Opie. Faith wasn’t sure of where they’d gone and she got the idea that she and Dawn weren’t supposed to know. That was why they’d left Jax behind, to keep them distracted, she supposed. She, Dean, Dawn, Jax and Sam trailed out of the clubhouse as the rumbles of the Harleys died down.

Clay winced as he swung his leg over the bike stretching to work out the kinks in his muscles and then he caught sight of Faith.

“Hey, baby,” he said and she stepped forward, into his arms as he reached out. She was getting the hang of this hugging thing. All of them seemed to do a lot of it. Her dad pulled her in tight with strong arms and she let her head rest on his chest for a moment, breathing in the scent of leather, cigar smoke and highway dust. He released her when he saw Dean and Sam.

“Ah, I see the boys are back in town,” he said and his voice sounded tired. As far as Faith knew, Clay didn’t have a problem with the Winchesters, so she wondered what that was all about.

“Hope it’s okay if we crash again, sir,” Sam said.

“’S fine. Hope things went well on your hunt,” Clay said and Dean smirked at the obvious test. Clay wanted to know if Faith had let them in on the fact that the secret was out.

“Things went great. Sent some evil sons of bitches back to Hell. But we got a new problem now,” Dean told him.

“Do you now?” Clay said, heading toward the clubhouse door. They all fell in around him, following.

“Problem’s here in Charming, Clay,” Jax said and Clay didn’t bother stifling his groan.

“Christ,” he muttered, as they entered the clubhouse. He sat down heavily at a table and Faith noticed the way he flexed his hands. His arthritis was no secret among the others, but he didn’t like to advertise it, so it had to be hurting badly for him to be so open about it. She sat beside him and took his hands in hers, using a little extra strength to massage them, just under the table, so it wasn’t so noticeable. Clay let his head fall back a little and listened, as Sam explained about Fun Town and the killings, with only a few smartass interjections from Dean.

When they were through, Clay pulled his hands from Faith’s and picked up the shot glass Tig had put on the table in front of him. He threw back the whiskey and set the glass back onto the polished wood with a loud crack and stood up, slowly.

“I’m going home to Gemma. First thing in the morning, we’ll deal with this, whatever it is,” he said. He put out his arms and Faith moved under one, Dawn the other and he squeezed them, once, before releasing them. “Night girls. I’ll see you in the morning.”

~*~

Clay parked his bike outside his house, noting that Gemma still had a lamp on in the bedroom. She’d be awake, waiting for him, even though he’d told her not to. He unlocked the front door, relocked it behind him and put his keys, his glasses and his gun into the glass tray just inside the door.

Sure enough, Gemma put down her novel as he entered the room, taking off her glasses and setting them on the nightstand.

“Hey, baby, how was the trip?” she asked.

“Long,” he said, kicking off his boots and crawling across the bed to lay his head in her lap. She smiled, stroking her fingertips through his short hair.

“My poor baby,” she murmured and he sighed.

“Yep,” he agreed.

“I take it you already saw the kids,” she said and he sighed, nodding and rolling to his back to look up at her.

“Those Winchester boys are back. Said there’s trouble here in Charming. Better than the alternative, I guess,” he said, uncertainly. Gemma looked down at him, knowingly.

“You’re afraid they’re going to take Faith away,” she guessed and he smiled a little.

“How do you read me so well?”

”All part of taking care of you, baby,” Gemma told him with a smirk.

“They said there’s something bad traveling with the carnival. After we take care of it, whatever it is, they’ll move on again. Faith says the hunters don’t stay in one place. When they go, she’ll go with them, won’t she?” he asked. “Her and Dawn.”

“Dawn won’t go anywhere,” Gemma said, confidently. “She’s falling hard for Jax and she’s more the home base type. Faith… well, baby, she’ll go with them, but she’ll come back. Bet on it, sweetheart.”

~*~


	9. Don't Be Stupid

Church at the clubhouse was quick, almost unnecessary that morning. The only subject on the table was whether to get involved and help Faith, Dawn and the Winchesters with whatever was coming and that was only perfunctory. There really wasn’t a question about it. Even if Faith hadn’t been his daughter, Charming was their town and no way was anyone or anything going to come in and start killing people without the Sons stepping in.  
  
Outside the room that held that sacred redwood table, Faith sat backward in a chair beside Dawn. She’d traded in her second hand work clothes she’d been wearing at the garage for tight, low riding jeans with holes worn on both thighs and in the knees. Her tank top was a smaller, black, a women’s version of a wife-beater and her boots had seen better days, but they were worn in and comfortable for walking around as well as kicking ass. Dean and Sam were outside, presumably digging through the trunk of the Impala and figuring out what they were going to take with them to the carnival that wouldn’t spook the locals. They’d be with the Club, which meant a certain amount of weaponry was expected, but a sawed-off on the Ferris Wheel just wasn’t going to cut it.  
  
“So, we got any idea what this thing is, besides, you know, bad?” Dawn said and Faith shook her head.  
  
“Nope. Looks like we’re spending a day at the carnival. Family outing, you know,” Faith quipped and Dawn had to grin.  
  
The door opened behind them and the both looked back. Tig was holding open the door and motioned for them to come in. Getting to their feet, the two girls stepped past him into the room to find Clay and the boys laying out an impressive display of lethal toys on the table around the Reaper engraving.  
  
“Come here, darlin’,” Jax said to Dawn, holding out a hand. “Let’s get you figured out.”  
  
Dawn hadn’t brought any of her own weapons with her when she came to Charming and since then, she’d always had Jax or Faith with her, so she hadn’t needed any. Now, though, everyone was arming up, like it or not.  
  
Faith watched for a moment while her brother fitted Dawn with a knife sheath on her narrow black belt. It was threaded through the loops of her khaki shorts and the black leather stood out in sharp relief against the sand colored linen. Her shirt was an army green tank top with a lacy neckline and the silver crucifix she’d put on that morning was in plain view. Jax handed Dawn a second, folding knife and she slipped it into her pocket.  
  
“Faith,” Clay said and she turned from watching Dawn to face her father. He handed her a sheathed knife and she undid her belt immediately, sliding the knife onto it, twisting to make sure it was sitting where she wanted it. When she turned, her black tank top rode up and Clay caught her wrist, staring at the mark on her skin. Faith froze, realizing he’d just seen her tattoo for the first time. Several of the others had noticed what was happening and were watching, curiously as Clay grasped her belt loop and tugged the waistband of her jeans down a little, baring the crow tattoo to the room. Faith bit her lip, unsure how he’d react. She hadn’t, after all, been invited to wear the crow symbol. She felt the rough pad of his thumb trace the tattoo and she looked up, cautiously.  
  
Her father’s eyes were suspiciously bright and he cleared his throat twice before he could speak.  
  
“This is new, isn’t it?”  
  
“Yeah, I, uh, got it last week,” she said, carefully not looking at anyone. The room had gone silent around them.  
  
“You know what this means, right? You know it’s permanent?”  
  
They all knew he wasn’t talking about the ink. He looked her in the eyes and she met his gaze steadily.  
  
“Yeah, Dad. I know,” she said, firmly, decisively and Clay grinned.  
  
“You don’t know how proud I am to see you wearing the crow, baby,” he said and his voice was a little rougher than usual. He released her jeans and pulled her in for a hug and Faith smiled into his jacket as he shouted out to the room, “My girl’s wearing SAMCRO ink!”  
  
There was a chorus of shouts from the others and then she was being passed around for back slapping and hugs. Jax kissed her cheek when she got him. He’d known about the ink and promised not to tell Clay until she did, though he’d told her from the beginning that Clay would love it.  
  
Tig grabbed her from Jax and hugged her and Faith laughed out loud. The sound of booted footsteps made her look up.  
  
“Lotta love in this room,” Dean said, sarcasm dripping from his tone. Faith raised an eyebrow at him and patted Tig’s cheek lightly before she stepped away, making it very clear that she was doing so on her own terms and not just because of Dean.  
  
“We should get going,” Dawn said, stepping between Faith and Dean to avert any pissing contests that might be about to start. It was their relationship, but with two people like Dean and Faith, sometimes they just needed a referee to step in and call time out.  
  
~*~  
  
Fun Town was just like any other carnival Faith had ever seen. The rides rose high into the sky all around her and the variety of food vendors kept a never ending, ever-changing scent floating through the air. Dean stood on one side of her, Clay on the other and they stopped just inside the gate. Gemma was there, on Clay’s other side, Sam, Dawn, Jax and the others just behind them.  
  
”Have a good time, but keep your eyes open,” Clay told them. “Remember we’re here on business.”  
  
“Whatever this is, it’ll most likely look human, so pay attention when you talk to people. Look for anything that seems off,” Sam said.  
  
“They’re carnies, Winchester. They’re all off,” Tig said, slapping him on the shoulder.  
  
“Glass houses, Tig,” Jax said with a grin and Tig paused for a moment, then shrugged.  
  
“Right,” he agreed, then wandered off with Juice toward the Zipper.  
  
Clay and Gemma split when she mentioned something about the photo booth and Faith was left with just Dean, moving down the fairway, looking around them. He slid an arm around her waist and she returned the gesture, smiling a little and leaning her head against his shoulder. It was a show, mostly, “See, we’re just a couple out for a day of fun”. She was musing back over their conversation in the car, she and Dean in the front seat, Sam in the back pretending to be invisible.  
  
 _“Grabby bunch of guys,” Dean said, as they followed the motorcycles through town in the Impala.  
  
Faith rolled her eyes.  
  
“Yeah, so, what’s your point?”  
  
“So my point is you’ve been staying in their freaking playground for two months and they’re a rowdy group,” he said and she realized what he was trying to say.  
  
“You asking me if I cheated on you, Dean?” she demanded, incredulous.  
  
“I’m asking you if anyone tried anything, dammit!” he almost shouted and Faith stared at him, a little amazed. She was the Slayer, after all, more that strong enough to put down any one of the Sons and Dean was, what, worried about her honor? She took a deep breath and tried to speak without strangling him, despite the fact that her fingers were twitching to wrap around his neck.  
  
“Let’s pretend for a second that I’m not completely capable of taking care of myself, Dean. This is my family. Even if I hadn’t come to them already being with you, none of them would even think of going there. Never mind that Clay and Jax would both freak out, the Club itself is family,” she repeated. “Tig, Bobby, Piney, Chibs, Juice and Opie, they’re like a few more annoying uncles and brothers that I never knew I wanted.”  
  
“So all this time, you’ve just been sitting around waiting for me?” Dean asked, sarcastically.  
  
“Don’t be a prick, you know better than that,” she snapped. “I didn’t sit around and mope about you, but I didn’t hop into someone else’s bed to kill time either.”  
  
They were pulling into the dusty field that served as a parking lot for the fairgrounds and Sam spoke from the backseat.  
  
“Guys, we should wrap this up before we get out of the car,” he told them.  
  
“Shut up, Sam!” came the chorus from the front seat and Sam sighed, opening his door and getting out of the car. When his door slammed shut, Faith turned in her seat, crawling across the leather and straddling Dean’s lap, the steering wheel making it a tight fit. She fisted her hands in Dean’s jacket.  
  
“Listen, Winchester,” she said, in a low voice, very aware that the Club was approaching outside the car. “This is my family. They’re not going to change. You have to decide if you’re going to be able to accept that.”  
  
“Long as they all remember that you’re mine,” Dean said, eyes flashing with a fierceness that she’d never seen before. He reached up and caught her face in his hands, pulling her down and kissing her, harshly, so that she felt his teeth on her lips, his fingers gripping her hair, tightly. It was a hard kiss, so hard it almost hurt and it sparked something in her that had her returning it just as hard, rotating her hips against him, her whole body suddenly on fire.  
  
The sound of catcalls from outside brought her back to herself sharply and she drew back, glancing out the window to see the guys outside whooping and hollering at them. Clay was giving her a look that suggested he really hadn’t wanted to see that and Jax was holding Dawn’s hand over his eyes, shielding them. Dawn was laughing and Gemma gave her a thumbs up, grinning.  
  
“I think they get the message,” Faith said, dryly and Dean smirked.  
  
“Good.”_  
  
Now, walking along the fairway with him in that silly-in-love way, Faith couldn’t help but wonder if Dean had really meant what he’d said. Did he honestly think of Faith as being his? Part of her resented the implication that she was “owned” by someone, but the rest of her sort of liked his possessive wording. She supposed that was the latent girly side of her.  
  
“Hey, big pretzels! Want one?”  
  
Dean’s voice broke into her thoughts and she looked at him, smiling a little at the childlike grin on his face.  
  
“Sure,” she said and he dragged her over to the vendor and bought two of the ridiculously huge pretzels. He immediately tore into his and she ripped a piece off of her own and took a bite.  
  
“Daddy, look at the clown!” came a child’s voice and Faith turned to see a dark haired little girl pointing.  
  
“I don’t see anything, Kaity,” said the girl’s father and the little girl’s bottom lip poked out in a pout.  
  
“He was there, Daddy, he waved at me!” she argued.  
  
The rest of the conversation was lost as a group of people passed between the father and daughter and Faith and Dean.  
  
“Dean,” she said and he nodded.  
  
“I heard. Looks like it’s time to get to work.”  
  
~*~


	10. All Work and No Play

~*~

“Did we learn anything?”

They were gathered in the clubhouse and Juice and Chibs had gone to pick up pizza for everyone. It was after ten, the carnival was closed for the night and they’d made their way back separately.

Dawn was behind the bar, making coffee in the industrial sized coffee pot, for herself and Gemma at least, since they seemed to be the only ones not up for alcohol. So far, everyone else had already either opened a bottle of beer or poured themselves a drink or a shot.

“So, what do we know?” Clay asked.

“A few of the carnies knew about the murders, but didn’t seem to know anything more,” Jax said.

“Weird people, man,” Tig said, shaking his head, but offering nothing more.

“Couple of the ride attendants clammed up tight when we brought up the murders,” Sam said. He’d been walking around with Juice that day, talking to various Fun Town employees.

“Do we think the other carnies know what this… whatever it is, this killer is doing?” Gemma asked, smiling up at Dawn as the younger girl set a cup of coffee in front of her and sat down with her own mug in the empty seat next to Jax.

“Some of them probably have their suspicions,” Sam said.

“Then why not say something?” Tig asked.

“Most of them probably just don’t want to get involved,” Dean said. “You’ll see it a lot with a closed community like the carnies, too, where no matter how bad one of them is, the others clam up and protect them.”

“I still don’t get that,” Tig said. “Guy’s goin’ around killing innocent families.”

“Think of it like this,” Sam said. “One of the Sons commits murder. Not retribution, not protecting themselves or the club, just up and shoots an innocent person on the street. The rest of you may not agree with what he’s done, but you’ll protect him anyway, right?”

“No one rats on a brother,” Tig said, nodding. “Loyalty, that I get.”

“Great, now that Tig’s on board, how do we find this thing?” Clay asked.

“We need more to work with,” Faith said.

They all looked up when the clubhouse door opened and Juice and Chibs came in with the pizza. They looked a little too excited for pepperoni and Canadian bacon.

“Clay, there’s a fire over on Fourth Street. Unser says the family is still inside. Fireman said it looked like they were already dead when the blaze started,” Juice said, putting the pizza boxes on the table.

“Looks like we got more to work with,” Dean said.

~*~

They decided that not everyone needed to go to the scene. It would raise too many questions, all of them showing up. It was Clay, Jax, Dean, Sam and Faith that drove over to Fourth Street, parking the motorcycles and the Impala down the street from the fire trucks and ambulances. Dean and Sam had changed into suits in the car, despite Faith telling them they didn’t need to and as they approached, they both reached into their jackets for the false FBI badges they carried. Clay put out a hand to stop them as they reached the police chief.

“Wayne, what happened?” Clay asked and Dean and Sam looked at one another, then back at the police chief.

“Looks like the Harrisons were murdered, then the killer set the fire to cover it up,” Wayne Unser said, sighing, tiredly. “Who does this in Charming?”

“We’re already on it,” Jax told him and Unser nodded, looking back at the flames, which were mostly out and the stretchers with black body bags that were being wheeled toward the ambulances.

“We need to get a look at the bodies,” Dean said and the chief gave him a funny look, then glanced at Clay, who nodded.

“They’re friends. They can help.”

“Okay, then, you’ll have to follow the ambulances to St. Thomas Hospital. The morgue is in the basement.”

~*~

“Looks like SAMCRO really does have law enforcement in their pocket,” Sam said, as they drove to the hospital. Faith was in the passenger seat and Dean was driving and Faith turned in her seat to glance back at him.

“Well, yeah, but they’re also friends. Chief Unser grew up here with Gemma,” she told him.

“Sort of nice, I guess, not having to BS our way into the investigation,” Dean admitted, as he pulled into the parking lot.

Clay had gone home to Gemma and Jax had headed back to the clubhouse, where Dawn was waiting. Neither of them had any experience with autopsies, so they wouldn’t be much help in the morgue.

Faith and the Winchesters walked into the morgue and were greeted by the attendant. It was a change from their usual sneaking around to be told the chief of police had called and said they were coming, even used their real first names. Their last names were another matter all together, seeing as how they both had outstanding warrants under the name Winchester.

Faith stepped back while Sam and Dean did their thing. She didn’t mind dead bodies so much, but she wasn’t up to poking around in their insides either. Sam pulled back the sheet from the first body and began his amateur autopsy.

It was almost an hour later when the third body, a teenage girl, finally yielded a clue.

“Dean, I found something,” Sam said, prying open the corpse’s charred fingers. With a pair of tweezers, he pulled something from her grasp. Sam frowned at it, setting it on a tray and taking off one of his gloves. He touched it gingerly and then looked up. “Feel this,” he told his brother.

Dean made a face and reluctantly pulled off a glove, poking gingerly at the object on the tray. The look on his face changed when he touched it, from disgusted to amazed.

“Sonofabitch,” he muttered and Faith stood up, moving forward to see what it was. It looked like a lump of flesh.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Shapeshifter skin. We’ve got a shapeshifter,” Dean said.


	11. Dirty Little Secret

~*~

Chief Wayne Unser was strolling through the police station, sipping the morning’s first cup of coffee in the relative quiet when the fax machine whirred to life and began spitting out paper. He glanced at Nancy, the secretary, as she picked up the impressive stack and began sorting it before it finished.

“What’cha got, Nancy?” he asked.

“Deputy Chief Hale requested some information on some people last night and these are the results,” Nancy said, sorting everything into neat piles. Three of the piles were only two or three sheets of paper, but the fourth was fairly thick.

“Oh, really, who’s that? Some of the carnies from Fun Town get into some trouble?” he asked, before taking a drink of his coffee.

“No, he said these four were spending a lot of time at Morrow-Teller Garage,” Nancy said. “A Dean Tyler, Sam Perry, Dawn Summers and Faith Lehane,” she read off.

Wayne nearly spit his coffee all over the room. He managed to choke it down and moved quickly to Nancy’s side, picking up the stacks of paper, quickly.

“I’ll just look these over, Nancy and then pass them along to Hale when he gets in later,” he told her, walking away without waiting for her to answer.

~*~

Chief Unser found Clay at the garage, rebuilding a motor on a Cadillac. The sounds of people working in the other bays echoed through the big building and he could hear Gemma talking in the office, along with the higher tones of the girl, Dawn, who had been helping out with the book keeping.

“Wayne, what are you doing here so early?” Clay asked, noticing him.

“There’s something- well, I need to let you know that Hale’s been running background checks on your guests,” Wayne said, uncomfortably.

“My guests?”

Clay raised a curious eyebrow and Wayne sighed.

“Those two boys and your daughter and her friend,” he clarified. “The boys and Dawn, they came up clean, but, Clay, well, Faith… her file…” Wayne was sort of stumbling over his words at that point and he held out the file folder to Clay without another word.

“What’s this?” Clay asked, glancing down at it and seeing Faith’s name on the tab at the top.

The clearing of a throat made both of them look up, to see Faith standing in the doorway of the garage. She was wearing grease stained jeans and a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail and she had a grease rag hanging out of her pocket.

“Dad, please don’t open that,” she said, in a quiet voice. Her eyes flicked to Wayne. “Please, don’t say anything. I need to tell him myself.”

~*~

Faith’s heart was pounding so hard she thought her ribs might break. She’d just walked over from the clubhouse to start working in the garage when she saw the police car out front. Thinking maybe they police had actually found a clue at the scene of the fire the night before, she’d gone straight to where she knew Clay would be. She only heard part of the conversation and suddenly it was harder to breathe. She was a little light headed and her stomach clenched, painfully. She’d planned on telling them, honestly, she just could never find a time that seemed right and truthfully, she was afraid of what her father would say once he knew. When she’d seen the file folder, she knew it was time, it had to be. Better she tell him herself than have him read it in black and white print.

Unser gave her a wary look as he left, getting into his car and pulling slowly out of the parking lot. She watched him go, then turned to Clay, nervously, hands in her back pockets to keep from clenching them. He was holding that damn folder, watching her, face carefully blank.

“We should, um, probably go into the office. Gemma should hear this, maybe Jax too,” she said. She didn’t add that Dawn was there and she needed someone in her corner when she did this, said this out loud.

“Sure,” Clay said and as she turned toward the office, he stepped up beside her and slid an arm around her. She leaned her head on him as they walked the short distance, putting her arm around his waist in return, fist clenching in his cut, holding on tightly, hoping it wouldn’t bet he last time he wanted her this close.

Gemma looked up from the ledger when they entered and Dawn, standing near the coffee pot, smiled at them. Her smile drained away though when she saw the look on Faith’s face, the file folder in Clay’s hand.

“Faith wants to talk to us about something,” Clay said and Gemma looked worried.

“Jax too,” Faith added, sounding a little breathless. She needed to tell them all at once, her family, so they could make their decisions fully informed. The Club would need to know, Tig, Piney, Opie and the others, but after, once she knew how her father, brother and stepmother felt.

Gemma pushed a button on the intercom and paged Jax to the office. He jogged in moments later, wiping the grease from his hands.

“What’s up? Something wrong?” he asked, looking around at their faces.

“Shut the door and sit down,” Clay said and Jax did, the look on his face uncertain. He sat in one of the metal chairs and reached out for Dawn’s hand automatically, but she shook her head, slightly, moving to where Faith had sat, on the other side of the room from the rest of them, putting distance between herself and her family. Dawn put her hands on Faith’s shoulders and the Slayer glanced up at her, grateful for the support.

“Go ahead, Faith, we’re listening,” Gemma said and Faith took a shaky breath.

“I got your back,” Dawn murmured. “It’ll be okay.”

So she told them, everything. She started at the beginning, things she hadn’t said out loud to anyone but Dawn. She told her family about her childhood, her teen years and she saw the anger on her father’s face. Not at her, though, not for this, not yet. Faith knew that look. It was the one he got when she told him something that he felt he should have been able to prevent, had he been there in her life. That looked warmed something inside her and she held onto that warmth, because she’d need it to get through the rest.

She told them about Kakistos and coming to Sunnydale, about the stealing and then, the murder of the Deputy Mayor. She told them about trying to kill Angel and Buffy, about teaming up with the Mayor and the coma. Then when she woke up, going to L.A., the people she hurt, torturing Wesley. Then prison, escaping to help with Angelus and then the battle with the First. It took a while to tell it all and none of them spoke. There was just the sound of the little fan whirring on the counter, the gentle pressure of Dawn’s hands on her shoulders and the sound of her own voice, confessing her sins to the only people whose judgment she feared.

“I don’t have any warrants. The Council was able to squash the rest of my prison sentence, so they’re not looking for me. The record, though, it’s all real. So, now you know. The truth, I mean,” Faith said, finally raising her eyes to meet Clay’s, then Gemma and Jax and back to Clay. She fell silent then, waiting for them to speak, pass judgment, something, anything so she could breathe again.

“You been carrying this since you got here, haven’t you, baby?” Gemma asked, quietly. “This secret of yours.”

Faith nodded, tightly.

”Why? Why not just tell us?” Jax asked, looking truly confused.

“I-“ Faith faltered.

“Jesus, Jax, she’s waiting for you to tell her you don’t want her! That this makes her a bad person and she can’t be your sister anymore,” Dawn blurted out.

“That’s just stupid,” Jax said, glaring at Faith. “Why the hell would I do that?”

“Because I’m a criminal, a killer, dammit!” Faith said, nearly shouting.

“You were a kid, it was an accident!” Jax argued.

“I still did it!” she snapped.

“Stop yelling at her!” Dawn told him.

“Children!”

Clay’s shout made them all look at him. He was sitting back against the desk, holding Faith’s file in his hands. Faith stood up.

“I’ll go pack my stuff,” she said, her voice tightly controlled.

“The hell you will,” Clay said, dropping the folder in the trashcan. “Few things you should know, baby, about SAMCRO.”

~*~

“Seriously? Gun running?” Sam said and Faith nodded. They were in the car, on their way to Fun Town to look for their shapeshifter.

“Makes sense. They keep the drugs out of Charming, make sure it’s safe for the civilians and in return, everyone turns a blind eye to the guns,” Dean mused, pulling into the parking lot.

“So they, what, get the gun parts, assemble the weapons and sell them to whoever’s willing to pay the most?” Sam asked and Faith shrugged.

“I didn’t really ask for too many details. It didn’t seem important at the moment. Gist of it is, the garage is a legitimate business, but it doesn’t make nearly enough to support SAMCRO. It’s sort of their front,” she said. “Their real money making activities are a little less legal.”

“But you told them everything, about your past and they’re cool with it?” Sam asked, as they got out of the car.

Faith sighed.

“Yep, they’re cool with it. I think Tig’s even sort of proud.”

~*~


	12. Broken Mirrors

~*~

The order of the evening was recon, this time with less of the wandering around looking like paying customers and more of the picking locks and peeking in windows. The three of them stayed in a loose group, checking out trailers that were next to one another so they never got too far apart. Shapeshifters were tricky bastards, Dean had insisted, and if they took their eyes off each other for more than a minute, the shifter would replace one of them and then they were screwed.

They’d been through most of the trailers and it was getting close to closing time when they finally got lucky. Sam had knocked over a lamp in a trailer and bent to pick it up when something caught his eye. He reached out and grabbed the shiny yellow material and pulled it from the box.

“Dean! Faith!” he called out and they stepped inside the doorway to see him holding up the yellow satin jumpsuit with big red pom poms and a colorful neck ruff.

“Jesus, that’s the clown suit from that movie, the Stephen King flick, with Tim Curry,” Dean said.

“You mean It?” Faith said, her brow furrowed.

“You’re right, it’s a Pennywise costume,” Sam agreed. “Our shifter must model himself after the movie character when he’s in clown form.”

“Great, wonder if he includes the razor sharp teeth with the costume,” Faith muttered.

“Whose trailer is this, anyway?” Dean asked.

“James Kessler,” Sam said. “He runs the funhouse.”

“Great, clowns and mirrors,” Dean said, as Sam shoved the costume back into the box and the three of them left the trailer.

“So what now?” Faith wondered, glancing around to make sure no one was watching them.

“We wait ‘till closing time and then we go into the funhouse and take him out,” Dean said.

“Should we call Clay and the others?” Sam asked and Faith bit her lip for a moment, then got out her cell phone and speed dialed Dawn.

“Dawnie, we got ‘em,” she said. “I need you to get my Dad, tell him and the boys to meet us at Fun Town.”

~*~

They surrounded the building, the Sons, the Winchesters and Faith and Dawn. Only five of them would go in, Dean, Sam, Faith, Clay and Jax. “The less people it can copy the better,” Dean had told them and the others had to agree. Everyone on the outside would be watching the exits, making sure their target didn’t get out of the building.

The fairway had shut down, the lights gone out, the music stopped and it was eerily silent and dark around the funhouse. They’d been watching for a half hour and hadn’t seen Kessler leave, so they were betting he was still inside. He probably knew they were there, waiting for him.

The five went in armed with knives, the highest silver content available in the metal. Pure silver would bend and break, but enough silver mixed with the steel during forging and it would still do the job.

They split off, Faith and Dean going one direction, Sam, Jax and Clay going the other, closing the door behind them. They’d only been inside for a few minutes when the strobe lights and theme music came on and Dean cursed, soundly. Faith blinked, slowly, trying to focus, but the swirling world of flashing white light and mirrors that appeared to be moving had her head spinning. Looking around, she spotted a flash of yellow and her eyes narrowed.

“Dean, it’s here,” she said, quietly and she felt him tense beside her. “In the clown costume, somewhere in the mirrors.”

“Great,” he muttered. “Just what I always wanted, to get gutted by the very clown that made clowns creepy in the first place.”

A loud, maniacal giggle sounded around them and Faith was pretty sure it wasn’t part of the sound effects from the funhouse. Something brushed by her and she spun around, but only saw herself in bright flashes in the mirrors. She reached back to grab Dean’s jacket, something to steady herself with, but instead of cool leather, she found flimsy silk.

“Shit,” she said, turning, slowly, knowing what she was going to find. The yellow suit gleamed in the strobe lights, the red pom poms down the front jiggling in a ridiculous way that was somehow still scary. That painted red mouth was grinning at her and the eyes that looked down at her were gleaming like mercury. Her hand tightened around the hilt of the knife and her eyes flicked to the floor, where Dean lay in an unconscious heap, blood oozing from his temple. She looked back up at Pennywise just in time to see the baseball bat coming toward her head.

~*~

Faith woke in the dark, her head pounding. She raised a hand and touched her forehead, unsurprised to feel the sticky warmth of blood in her hair. She got to her feet, her hand on the cool surface of a mirror to get her balance. The strobes were still flashing and the music still playing and she was betting she hadn’t been out very long.

Long enough, though, to get separated from Dean. She was in a different part of the mirror maze and he was nowhere to be seen. Faith had to wonder why she was still breathing, why Pennywise had dragged her off by herself and she could only presume that he wasn’t done playing with them yet.

The flashing lights were playing havoc with her now aching head and she closed her eyes, listening. She heard Dean, somewhere beyond the mirrors, calling her name. He sounded pissed. Vaguely, she thought she could hear Sam yelling for Dean. No doubt he could hear his brother trying to find Faith. Opening her eyes with a frustrated sigh, Faith put her hand on the mirror and started walking, not even realizing she was leaving smeared fingerprints of blood from her head on the glass.

~*~

Clay had run ahead of Sam and Jax when he heard Dean calling for Faith. Obviously, they’d been separated and that meant she was in here somewhere, alone with a monster. It didn’t matter that she was the Slayer, that she had super strength and speed and skills he could only imagine. She was his family and he had to get to her.

The flashing light illuminated the mirrors in front of him and the smear of red caught his eye. He blinked, waiting for the light again. Sure enough, there it was, blood on the mirror, fingerprints, too small to be a man’s. That left Faith. Clay’s heart beat faster and he slowly crept along the corridor, following the trail of blood to find his daughter.

~*~

Faith felt light headed, either from blood loss or the blow to her head. It didn’t matter which, not really, the result would be the same. She was eventually going to lose consciousness and that would be bad. Lying in a fun house at the mercy of a psychotic shape changing clown was not how she wanted to go out.

She put her back to the mirror and shut her eyes for a moment, breathing deep and trying to steady herself. When she opened them, her knees nearly buckled in relief. Clay was standing on the other side of the room of mirrors, arms crossed over his chest, watching her.

“Dad,” she said, pushing away from the mirror and taking a step toward him. “Have you seen it?”

“All I see is you, Faith,” he told her and the tone of his voice made her pause. He slid his knife out of the sheath at his belt and started moving slowly toward her.

“What are you doing?” she asked, going still. Something was wrong, very wrong.

“What I should have done a long time ago. See, this way there won’t be any questions. The damn shapeshifter killed you and I couldn’t stop him,” he said and something inside her clenched.

“You’re not Clay,” she said, levelly, drawing her own knife.

“You so sure about that darlin’?” he asked and her hand tightened on the knife.

“I’m sure,” she said, but her voice was unsteady. Was she really sure? Hadn’t she been expecting them to turn their backs on her this whole time? Clay was smart, though, he’d never turn his back on anyone dangerous. He’d kill them instead, make sure they wouldn’t be able to come back. It made a sick sort of sense.

“No, I don’t think you are,” he told her. “If you were, you’d have already stuck that knife it me. Part of you knows you deserve this, that’s why you haven’t attacked me yet, isn’t it, Faith?”

“You’re not my father,” she told him, but her voice lacked conviction.

“Sure I am, baby, and that’s why it’s my responsibility to kill you and make sure you can never hurt anyone ever again,” he said and the fist around her heart tightened it’s grip to the point where she was having trouble breathing. Her instincts were telling her to drive her blade into his heart, to fight, survive, win, but she couldn’t bring herself to move. He was her father. What if he was right? What if she deserved this?

She blinked, horrified to feel the sting of tears on the back of her eyes and her fingers went slack around the hilt of her knife as he approached. He reached for her, as if to touch her face and she flinched, but didn’t pull away. His fingers touched her cheek and then his eyes flew wide and something warm sprayed across her face as the tip of a silver blade exploded through his chest. She gasped, tasting the salty tang of blood and Clay crumpled to the ground to reveal Clay standing behind him, blood running in rivulets down his arms as he yanked the blade free of the falling body.

“Faith? You okay, darlin’?” he asked. She blinked, meeting his eyes finally.

“Five by five,” she said and then the black rolled in around the edges of her vision. The last thing she knew Clay was dropping his knife and lunging to catch her.

~*~

Faith woke up fighting, her fingers grasping a knife that was no longer there and slashing out with a sharp cry. Dawn avoided her fist, ducking and grabbing her wrists.

“Faith, wait!”

Her voice made the Slayer pause and Faith blinked, coming fully awake and finally seeing Dawn in front of her.

“Hey,” she said, breathless, blinking and Dawn had to smile.

“Hi. How you feeling?”

“Like an incredibly stupid wimp,” Faith said. “With a headache,” she added, after a moment.

“That was a hell of a hit. It took several stitches to close it, so I think it’s safe to say you’re not a wimp. Us mere humans would probably still be out,” Dawn said with a smile.

Faith raised her fingers to her temple, feeling the bumps of the stitches gingerly.

“They’ll come out in a day or two with your Slayer healing. Probably won’t even scar,” Dawn told her and Faith sat up, looking around her. She was in a bedroom she’d never seen before. Her bag was in the corner, next to Dean’s battered duffel, so that was once question she didn’t have to ask. Dean and Sam hadn’t left.

“Where are we?”

“Clay and Gemma’s house. This is the guest room,” Dawn said, watching as Faith put her feet on the floor and slowly stood up, making sure she was able to keep her balance.

“Why? What happened to the clubhouse?” she wanted to know, taking a few experimental steps across the room.

“Your dad wanted to keep you close,” Dawn said, not for the first time envying the Slayer’s ability to recover. Faith had found her balance and was moving around as if she hadn’t had her head split open less than 24 hours ago.

“He did, huh?” Faith mumbled.

“Faith, what happened in there? Clay wouldn’t tell us anything except the shifter was dead.”

Faith sighed and looked at Dawn. If there was anyone who deserved to know the truth, it was Dawn. So she told her, speaking softly and slowly and when she was done, staring at the horror in her friend’s eyes, she swore to herself that she’d never repeat the story again, not to anyone.

~*~

Clay took a drink of coffee, his elbows propped on the table, staring at the wall across the dining room. He could hear Gemma on the patio, talking to Sam and Dean and Jax. The boys were drinking beer, Gemma a mixed drink, relaxing now that Dawn had assured them that Faith would be fine, but somehow, Clay didn’t feel like drinking. He was lost in his own thoughts. He’d listened to that monster speak, using his voice to hurt his daughter. He’d known her fears, that she was afraid of his rejection for her past, but he hadn’t had any idea that it went so deep. She had just stood there, waiting for him to kill her, as if she deserved it. It struck something inside him, scared the hell out of him and made him infinitely sad that she thought she was worth so little.

The sound of footsteps made him look up and there she was, walking into the kitchen, Dawn beside her. The stitches on her temple stood out, starkly against her still pale skin and the bruise that blossomed over her face was already turning that sickly green color that said it had done a few days worth of healing. Her eyes were clear though and she was walking on her own.

“How you feeling?” he asked as she pulled out a chair and sat beside him at the table.

“Five by five,” she said, smiling a little. Dawn was pouring them both a cup of coffee and set Faith’s on the table in front of her before taking her own cup out to the patio, leaving father and daughter alone.

“So,” Clay said.

“So,” she agreed, looking down at her cup as though it held all the answers to the universe.

“I don’t know how to fix this,” he finally said and she looked up, forehead crinkled in confusion.

“Huh?”

“This stupid idea you’ve got that there’s anything in the world that could make me not want you,” he clarified and she blinked at his blunt words, speechless for once. He took a breath and let it out slowly before he continued.

“Look, I missed most of your life, Faith. That’s something we can’t change. But I don’t plan on missing another minute of it.”

She cleared her throat twice before she found her voice.

“You know, Dad, that when Dean and Sam go-“

“Yeah,” he interrupted, “I know. You’ll be going with them. You have a calling and people need your help. That doesn’t mean I won’t be in your life. I expect a phone call at least every other day, letting me know where you’re at and that you’re okay. You miss more than one call and I’m coming to find you,” he said, gruffly and she smiled a little.

“Yes sir,” she said, saluting, then wincing a little when her fingers brushed the bruise on her head.

“And I’m gonna have some words with those Winchester boys too,” he added and her eyes widened a little. “They better stick close and back you up. No more of this getting beat up by the bad guys,” he said and Faith laughed out loud.

~*~

“So it’s that time, huh?”

Faith looked up from shoving clothes into her bag to see Jax, standing in the doorway. She was in her old room at the clubhouse, gathering the few things that hadn’t been moved to Clay and Gemma’s when she got hurt. It had been a week since they killed the shapeshifter and there was no sign of the bruise left on Faith’s head.

“Yeah, it’s time to head out,” she agreed, zipping the bag shut and getting to her feet.

“But you’re coming back, soon,” he guessed and she smirked a little when she nodded.

“Yep. Dad’s orders. I gotta check in every other day and come home at least once every other month so he can see I’m still in one piece,” she said. “I think Dawn added something on about picture messaging her if we came across anything she might be interested in, but I’m not sure.”

Jax laughed and stepped forward, drawing her into a quick, tight hug and then releasing her and stepping back.

“We’ll miss you around here,” he said.

“Take care of Dawnie, Jax. She’s tough, but she’s human. You let anything happen to her and I’ll kick your ass,” she told him.

“I’ll keep an eye on her,” he promised her, “Scouts honor.”

Faith snorted.

“You were never a Scout, Jax.”

~*~

Each of the boys said their goodbyes in their own way, some gruff, some affectionate, some playfully, but all of them sincere.

“Kill a few monsters for me,” Tig said and Faith grinned.

“Promise, Tig. Maybe sometime you can come kill one yourself,” she said, surprised to find her eyes prickling with the threat of tears. She shoved the emotion back and stepped out of the clubhouse to find Dean, Sam, Gemma, Dawn and Clay waiting for her. She stepped into Gemma’s outstretched arms and hugged her tightly.

“Take care of our boys, Gemma,” she said, softly, for her stepmother’s ears alone.

“I always do, baby girl. We’ll all be waiting here when you get back,” Gemma promised, pulling back and smiling at her.

~*~

“You’re sure you don’t want to go with us?” Faith asked Dawn again. Their bags had been loaded into the Impala and Sam was already in the back seat, Dean standing in the open door on the driver’s side.

“I’m sure. I’ll be here when you come back home,” Dawn said with a smile and a glance at Jax.

“Home,” Faith said, quietly, then smiled a little. “Yeah.”

“Be careful out there and don’t forget to call, unless you want your dad and the boys tracking you down,” Dawn reminded her.

“Phone calls, got it, check,” Faith agreed. Dawn stepped forward and hugged her and Faith returned it, then turned to her dad, only to be drawn into a tight embrace. She hugged him back, breathing in the scent of leather and cigar smoke and smiling.

“Come home soon, darlin’,” he said, gruffly.

“You bet,” she promised.

“Faith, we gotta get on the road,” Dean called out and Faith pulled back. She gave her dad and Dawn a smile, then climbed into the car. Dean got behind the wheel and turned the key. The engine rumbled to life and Faith sighed, leaning back in her seat as Dean pulled out of the parking lot and guided the car onto the highway. Two lane blacktop that would carry them to the next job and the next and then, eventually, would bring her back home.

~*~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for reading and for the reviews! There are more stories in this series, I will be posting them up in the near future, so hope you stick around for the next one!


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